Dear Parents and Caregivers,

It continues to be my absolute privilege to be Principal, at St. Joseph’s School, Kingswood and I have enjoyed every minute of the successes and challenges we have faced this year. 2020 has been a year of continuing to develop and grow our school community. In addition to a very comprehensive curriculum program and outstanding teachers, we have offered such a huge diversity of co and extra curricula offerings that enrich your children’s life and learning, in Music and the Arts, in Sport, enrichment, TOEP, camps and excursions, our new STEM program, etc. I believe that the opportunities offered by our school are outstanding for a school of this size. What makes an education at St. Joseph’s Kingswood so special, though, is the Catholic community in which we all come together in life and faith. I am proud of our school community, and excited by the opportunities the future holds, as we look ahead to exciting new developments in 2021.

I am extremely proud of the achievements in our school community during 2020. We have been able to respond in an agile and professional manner to the demands of the COVID-19 Pandemic, maintaining a strong and safe learning and well-being program for all children and, importantly, keeping the trust and cooperation of the whole school community. An important aspect of the management of this pandemic has been our response to those families experiencing financial hardship, with full remissions given for those who needed, Tuition free term 3 enrolment, and an overall fee reduction for the whole community for 2021 and the foreseeable future.

During the upheaval of COVID, we have been able to deliver two major infrastructure programs, which have and will profoundly change the overall running of our school community for many years. Like everybody, I am very excited about the beginning of 2021 and the opening of our new Library, classrooms and administration centre, and the nature playground has been a huge hit!

In a year of uncertainty and change, we have managed an overall net increase in enrolments. This has been an outstanding result and both reinforces the decision to support the employment of a Marketing and Enrolment Officer and is validation of Bianca’s hard work over the past 18 months. Our projected enrolment for 2022 is also strong, and this is encouraging for our long term planning.

From a learning perspective, I have been very impressed with the capacity of our staff to respond to the demand to create the capacity for remote learning experiences, as well as continuing to deliver excellent teaching and learning for all children. We are very blessed here at St. Joseph’s to have high quality teaching and support staff.

This year, we introduced a dedicated STEM (Science Technology Engineering Maths) curriculum for the first time. I want to acknowledge and thank MsKirstiee Wicks for her efforts in bringing the STEM curriculum to life and creating a strong platform for future years. The children all very much enjoyed this new opportunity, and I am pleased to confirm the program will continue in 2021.

Our teachers have continued to develop their professional skills as educators through a range of learning opportunities which, ultimately lead to better outcomes for your children. This year, we continued to focus on improving the quality of our teaching through a strong focus on the teaching of phonics, including the continuation of the MultiLit Tier 3 Intervention program. We also continued our focus on making learning visible, through work with Corwin Australia.  

The students of our community are a real credit to you as families. They are polite, respectful, dedicated and hardworking and they make a wonderful contribution to the school in so many ways. We are very proud of all of our students and we look forward to continuing with them on their learning journeys next year. I want to particularly acknowledge the leadership of our year 6 children, who have taken on many roles in the community this year. These young people are an inspiration to us all, with their generosity, helpfulness, goodwill and leadership. We are privileged to have such wonderful young people in our midst.

Thank you to all families who have made such an important contribution this most difficult of years. We have enjoyed getting to know you all both formally and informally in so many ways. A dedicated group of parent volunteers has led the community in a variety of fun and fundraising initiatives this year and these events have strongly contributed to the community feel of our school. My thanks to Makella Holden, Katie Routley and all the members of the P&F for their continued support of our school community-even in challenging times.

The school Board have done a brilliant job once again this year. It has been a privilege to work with a committed and professional group of people throughout the year as we took responsibility for the effective governance of the school. I would like to particularly acknowledge the continuing positive leadership of Board chair, Mr Jon Fox. Jon’s experience and capacity for leadership, and his personal support of my leadership have been greatly appreciated. Jon’s tenure on the school Board comes to a close this year, and while Jon will continue as interim chair until our AGM next year, he will then step down, as his children move on to Secondary School. Jon and the whole Fox family have made an indelible impression on the St Joseph’s Kingswood community for many years and we sincerely thank them for their service.

I would like to acknowledge also, the fantastic work, and support of Mr Jamie Deverson as Deputy Principal and both Mrs Emma Begg and Mrs Christine Farrugia who performed the role as APRIM during 2020. Jamie, Emma and Christine are highly capable leaders, and innovative and contemporary thinkers and enthusiastic and energetic people who have made a very strong positive impression in our community. I am very much looking forward to our continued work together. My sincere thanks also to the other members of our leadership team – Ms Basia Stecuik – Early Years Director of Learning and Mrs Emma Beggg-Primary Years Director of Learning. Both Basia and Emma have worked very hard in their roles this year, and have provided outstanding support to Jamie, Christine and myself.

For many families, this will be their last year at St Joseph’s Kingswood. Firstly, to all year 6 students and families who are leaving us and moving on, it has been our pleasure to have you as a part of our community and we wish you every future success and happiness. There are also a number of other families who will be finishing their time with us this year. Your contribution to our community is greatly appreciated and we wish you every happiness in your future endeavours. Please know that you will always have a home at St Joseph’s Kingswood.

To Fr Michael, Fr Bob, Sister Jasmine and all parish leaders and parishioners, thank you for your wonderful support of all children and families, and your support of the school. To the staff, I sincerely thank you for your professionalism, genuine care for the children, as well as your friendship and good humour. To our wonderful children-thank you all for being the best versions of yourselves all year!

This week, we say goodbye to Mrs Elizabeth Bello, who will take up a teaching position at St Raphael’s Parkside for 2021. We sincerely thank Elizabeth for her contribution to St Joseph’s Kingswood during 2020 and wish her every future happiness.

In other staffing news, as some of you are aware - we are having a third Reception class next year (in what is currently the Office for a few more days) and we are thrilled to welcome Mrs Tania Montin as the teacher of our additional Reception class. Tania is joining us from St Thomas School, Goodwood - with a wealth and passion for Early Years education. Please make sure you introduce yourself next year when you see Tania in the yard.

On behalf of everyone at St Joseph’s Kingswood, we wish you a very Happy and Holy Christmas and all of the joy and new opportunities a New Year brings. We look forward to what will hopefully be a far more settled year in 2021!

God bless,

Phil

I first heard of the Ickabog on the news as it was getting launched as a worldwide competition for children in lockdown. I immediately wanted to enter a drawing because it was my dream to be in a J.K Rowling book. So I started to read the chapters that were published two at a time everyday for people to read and I ended up finding a chapter that really interested me so I drew the instalment.

The picture I drew was my version of the Ickabog and how I thought it would look but then I decided to draw another picture of the Hopes of Heaven which are Cornucopian pastries (The land of Cornucopia is where the ickabog is set). I got the idea of the pastries from the chapter because they had been dropped into a flowerbed.

I entered both of the pictures but days later I found out the the Hopes of Heaven had been shortlisted (340 pictures were shortlisted -one for each chapter). I had to package up the picture then a courier came to pick it up and it was sent over to London so the publishers could get a better look at it and a lady from London called Becky Logan helped us get ready and went through some thing with us through this whole journey.

I was really nervous because if I didn’t win I would obviously be disappointed but somehow I had a gut feeling that my drawing would be picked -and so did both of my parents. It was about 10 o’clock, I was about to go to bed and my mum said to me that I had received an email so we were all sitting on the bed and mum handed me the phone. The email said “Congratulations Ella you are one of the 34 winners of the illustration competition” I straight away half-yelled “I WON!!” And we all couldn’t believe it. We had to wait a few days before we could tell anyone but the first person we told was my teacher Mrs Begg, then my class, then my Principal (Mr Schultz) and my family and friends my phone that night.

As a prize of winning as well as having my picture in a J.K. Rowling book, I received a copy of the book signed by  J.K. Rowling and about $1000 worth of books for a public library or school. I chose to donate the books to my school as a gift and thank you as I am a senior, plus we are building a new library so they will be happily borrowed.

For the advertisement of the Ickabog the winners could be involved in either a news report, getting their photo taken or talking to J.K. Rowling over a live event interview. I had to answer a series of questions about the Ickabog and one of them was “if you could ask J.K. Rowling one thing about the Ickabog what would it be?”. My answer to the question was “When you first wrote The Ickabog did you have an idea about what it looked like and how does that compare to the one that has been chosen?”.

Days later I was notified that I had been chosen to speak to J.K. Rowling over a live Zoom call! I was so excited because she is the person that inspires me the most and I got to talk to her and be in her-story making book! However, the date of the Zoom call was in the middle of when I was on camp at Kangaroo Island which was a problem and who would want to miss a once in a lifetime opportunity? So my parents figured out a way for them to come to Kangaroo Island for me.

I proceeded to go to camp as planned, it was the middle of camp and we had just had a busy day my parents came to pick me up from the campsite and took me back to their one-night-stay apartment. I was up all night as the interview was at 1:30am to make it convenient for the London time zone. So I was up for about 21 hours straight but it was definitely worth it. Before the interview I was shaking and extremely nervous but why wouldn’t you be when your about to talk to your idol? I was the only kid in Australia who got this opportunity so I was sort of representing my country.

We had a quick run-through to make sure everything was working and then the interview started. I was about 6th in the interview but it was good to listen to the other kids speak. When it was my turn the host, Leah asked me a few questions like “Why were you keen to enter the competition?” and “How did you feel when you found out that you had won?”. Then I got to ask my question to J.K Rowling!! One thing that she mentioned to me was that it was an honour for us to be in the same book together and that she absolutely loved my picture!. I was so happy that I had that opportunity and thankful that my parents came to K.I for me.

On the 10th of November 2020 the book was officially published. We had organised a small interview to go into The Advertiser as a happy statement just as we went into lockdown. I had a phone interview with Chris Russell who was in charge of the newspaper stories. Then I had a backyard photo shoot with my dog Jessie and myself holding up the book. The next week my photo and story was in The Advertiser and so many people came to congratulate me!

This is a moment that I will never forget and I am extremely lucky that this has happened to me because this is extremely rare! I am still so excited and it hasn’t become real for me yet even though I know that it is. I can’t believe that I am in a history making and my idol’s book!

SAPSASA Cricket - Semi-final

On Thursday, 26^th of November St Joseph's Kingswood Year 6 Knockout team versed All Saints in the Semi Finals. We lost the toss and All Saints decided to bowl. Our top 3 batters were Lucas with 24 runs, Will P with 22 runs and Archie with 21 runs. St Joseph's made 114 runs. Next we bowled and our top 3 bowlers were Will P with 3 wickets and 4 runs off him, Toby with 3 wickets and 4 runs scored off him and Cameron with 1 wicket with 1 run scored of him. Tom P took 2 excellent catches. All Saints were all out with 90 runs. Now St Joseph's are in the Grand Final which will hopefully be played on Thursday. We were so excited to have won the game as it was a very close game.

Written by Cameron Medlow

Thank you to everyone who has already booked in for pupil free days and vacation care. We have a couple of days that are particularly popular with only two spaces left - so if you haven't already, please make sure that you book in ASAP to avoid missing out. 

Reminder this term your child needs to bring a hat to OSHC as this is compulsory, otherwise we can provide them with one at a cost of $5.00.  Alternatively you can provide a hat which needs to be a wide-rimmed hat with your child’s name on the hat and we will keep it in our hat bag.

2020 SCHOOL FEES

Reminder that all fees for 2020 should now be finalised unless you have a prior arrangement negotiated. If your circumstances have changed and you are unable to meet your obligation by the end of November please let me know via email finance@stjk.catholic.edu.au  or arrange a meeting to discuss your situation further.
Your attention to finalising outstanding amounts promptly would be greatly appreciated.

2021 FEE AGREEMENT FORMS

The 2021 Fee Agreement form and paperwork is now available and is due to be completed by 2^nd December 2020. Even if you are continuing with the same payment option in 2021 please complete the new authorisation. Remember our new fee structure includes a Low Fee option and we encourage any family that is facing financial challenges due to COVID to make a time to discuss options.  

OSHC ACCOUNTS!

Thankyou to all the families who pay their accounts within 14 days. Remember you can pay easily via Qkr! or we can deduct from your nominated credit card weekly.   

Anne-Marie Stanton
School Bursar

Thank you to our 5 Bratt class creating a beautiful tree to contribute to the City of Mitcham's Christmas Festival. Make sure you pop along to the spaces!

**These events may be subject to change due to COVID-19 restrictions